john torrison president
   
  • Club Home
  • Club Members
  • Listen with Bill
    • Bill's History
  • Turntable
    • TT History
  • The FlipSide
  • Picturesque!
  • Skips Corner
  • Gulliver's Travels
  • The Club Pub
    • Sucks News
  • Harv's Corner

The Club PUBlication  02/28/2022

2/28/2022

0 Comments

 
Picture
Picture

​Authoritarianism is gaining ground
​

New report finds democracy is on the decline, as evidenced by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Picture
STEVE SACK STAR TRIBUNE
​Freedom House — a self-described independent watchdog dedicated to the expansion of freedom and democracy around the world — picked an auspicious day to deliver its annual "Freedom in the World" report: Thursday, the first full day of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Rather than being muted by the breaking news, the report was amplified. Its theme (and title) — "The Global Expansion of Authoritarian Rule" — reflected Russia's illegal, immoral attack on its sovereign neighbor.

Global freedom, the analysis starkly states, "faces a dire threat" as "enemies of liberal democracy — a form of self-government in which human rights are recognized and every individual is entitled to equal treatment under the law — are accelerating their attacks."

That's certainly the case in Ukraine, a democracy attacked by an authoritarian military superpower (aided by its supplicant state Belarus). While Ukraine was not a perfect democracy, as Freedom House points out, it was a functioning one and looked to improve its institutions as it sought to join NATO and the European Union. And it is decidedly not a "territory," as Russian President Vladimir Putin put it, but a fully independent nation now threatened by a dictator.

Few cases of democratic erosion are as dramatic as Ukraine's, but the trend is clear, according to Freedom House: 16 consecutive years of decline in global freedom, with 60 countries suffering declines in 2021 compared with only 25 improving.

Unlike the attempted Kremlin conquest of Ukraine, most of this loss of freedom is an inside job. "Authoritarian regimes have become more effective at co-opting or circumventing the norms and institutions meant to support basic liberties, and at providing aid to others who wish to do the same," according to the report.

Depressingly, even in some democracies, the report states, "internal forces have exploited the shortcomings in their systems, distorting national politics to promote hatred, violence and unbridled power." For example, the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

But by far the most egregious examples of rising authoritarianism are found in countries such as China, which has drawn considerably closer to the kindred repressive regime in Russia, a nation that could be exhibit A of Freedom House's report.

"The events that are happening this week in Ukraine fit squarely into the narrative and trends that we identified in our report," Freedom House President Michael Abramowitz told an editorial writer. "What you see now in Ukraine is an unprovoked invasion that is basically going to have the impact, potentially, of overturning a democracy in the middle of Europe."

Holding the Kremlin responsible for attempting to upend democracy has rallied allies in the West, Asia and Australia. But as always, Washington will need to be the leader in this effort.

"The world still looks to the United States to be the leader on democracy, and I think you're seeing that in Ukraine," Abramowitz said.
​
Whether that's enough to stop Putin's invasion remains to be seen. But not presenting a united front would certainly encourage him to continue his attacks on democracy — and the world order.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018

    RSS Feed